A new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has laid bare the scale of Afghanistan’s deepening drug crisis, revealing that more than 27,000 people among them women and children are now engaged in high-risk drug use. The report paints a grim picture of a country in systemic collapse, where poverty, lawlessness, and the erosion of public services have created fertile ground for addiction, disease, and instability.
Released in Kabul on 26 June, the study confirms a disturbing shift in drug consumption patterns from traditional cannabis and opium toward heroin and synthetic stimulants such as methamphetamine. These potent substances, often linked to transnational criminal networks, are driving a wave of overdoses, infectious diseases, and severe mental health consequences, particularly among Afghanistan’s most vulnerable: the uneducated, the homeless, and the young.
Startlingly, the data shows that 2,670 women and 2,150 children under the age of 15 are trapped in high-risk drug use. Nearly half of all users have never received formal education, while one in five lives without any form of shelter. These figures expose a breakdown in basic state functions, where neither education nor healthcare can reach those in need.
The UNODC report also highlights an alarming prevalence of injecting drug use. Eight percent of respondents reported injecting narcotics, with over 75 percent admitting to sharing needles drastically increasing the risk of HIV and hepatitis outbreaks. In a country with barely functioning healthcare systems, such statistics carry catastrophic implications.
“The findings underscore a humanitarian emergency with direct implications for regional and international security,” said Oliver Stolpe, UNODC Regional Representative for Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran, and Pakistan (ROCA). “The expansion of methamphetamine production and use is particularly worrying, given its potential links to organized crime and terrorist financing.”
Stolpe warned that Afghanistan’s uncontrolled narcotics trade—once dominated by opium—has evolved into a complex, unregulated drug economy that could serve as a financial lifeline for armed groups and criminal syndicates. With little to no oversight, the country risks becoming a global epicenter for synthetic drug production.
The report further reveals that while over half of high-risk users have sought some form of treatment, access to quality care remains dangerously limited especially outside major cities. Women and youth face insurmountable barriers due to social stigma, cultural taboos, and the absence of gender-sensitive rehabilitation services.
This multi-layered crisis is not occurring in isolation. It coincides with deteriorating governance, international disengagement, and the dismantling of human rights institutions creating a vacuum where addiction and exploitation thrive unchecked.
The UNODC called for urgent, coordinated global action to contain the fallout of Afghanistan’s spiraling drug emergency. Recommendations include scaling up harm reduction, expanding rural healthcare infrastructure, and confronting the broader nexus between narcotics, conflict economies, and transnational insecurity.
Jointly produced with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Afghan partners, the report is a sobering reminder of the costs of state failure—and a call to the international community not to look away.
